Hopefully this will be a place to educate people about the relatively unknown Bakken Crude oil from the Bakken Fields of North Dakota.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Ontario, Riverkeeper Calls for Immediate Steps to Protect Public From Danger of Crude Oil Trains

Ontario, Riverkeeper Calls for Immediate Steps to Protect Public From Danger of Crude Oil Trains

Leah Rae, Riverkeeper, (914) 478-4501 ext. 238 or (914) 715-6821,
lrae@riverkeeper.orgAfter Disasters in West Virginia and Ontario, Riverkeeper
Calls for Immediate Steps to Protect Public From Danger of Crude Oil
Trains
OSSINING, N.Y. – Feb. 18, 2015 – In the wake of two crude oil train
disasters in three days, Riverkeeper is calling for immediate federal
and state action to protect communities and the environment from the
imminent hazard presented by the virtually unregulated
shipment of crude oil by rail.
"What will it take for our leaders to act?" John Lipscomb, captain of
Riverkeeper's Hudson River Boat Patrol Program, asked, in light of the
litany of crude-by-rail derailment disasters that have happened in the
past two years. "How many more derailments?
How many more explosions? This is an unacceptable risk."
Every year, billions of gallons of oil move through states like New
York – over crumbling bridges, through pristine ecosystems, and
alongside schools and businesses. New federal safety rules for the
surging industry of rail shipment of crude oil are due
out this May – months after they were originally slated to be
published. But the plan is riddled with loopholes, and the most obvious
step – taking the worst-designed, most dangerous rail cars out of
service – wouldn't happen for years.
Enough studies. Enough waiting. Riverkeeper and communities around
the nation once again call upon the State of New York and the Secretary
of Transportation to take immediate action to address the
all-too-evident dangers threatening our communities, economies
and environment every day.
The State of New York should act on its emergency authority to
suspend the permits granted to Port of Albany oil transloading
facilities, which facilitate this ongoing endangerment. The state
Department of Environmental Conservation must then require an
environmental impact statement prior to any possible reactivation of
those permits.
The U.S. Secretary of Transportation must, based on the imminent
hazard posed by crude-by-rail, issue an Emergency Order applicable to
all crude and ethanol transport by rail that immediately:

Institutes a speed limit, taking into account rail conditions,
environmental and public health risks, and community vulnerabilities,
that protects the public.

Prohibits the use of the 23,000 tank cars identified by the NTSB and
PHMSA as being the most vulnerable and least resilient tank cars on the
rails. These “worst” tank cars – which include both CPC-1232s and
DOT-111s – should not be permitted for use in hauling
any other hazardous liquids (such as tar sands crude oil).

Requires that railroads immediately develop comprehensive spill response
plans keyed geographically to each county through which these trains
travel. Such plans are required for vessels carrying crude oil, but not
for trains – an unacceptable loophole that
needs to be closed.

Monday's derailment in West Virginia unleashed a huge fireball,
destroyed a home, forced residents to evacuate and closed downstream
public water supply intakes. Another oil train derailed and exploded in
rural Ontario Saturday night. These incidents follow
a string of other rail disasters across the continent, most tragically
the derailment and explosion in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, in July 2013, in
which 47 people lost their lives.
“No community should be subject to the real, imminent dangers that
crude oil trains present,” said Sean Dixon, Riverkeeper Staff Attorney.
"But the oil burning on the Kanawha River in West Virginia could as
easily be on the Hudson River. Imagine the fireballs
going up in our communities. Imagine our river on fire. Imagine our
drinking water intakes closed."
"The very same crude oil rolls through our communities and along our
rivers, from Buffalo to Albany, along the Mohawk, down the Champlain
Valley, through Hudson Valley communities like Albany, Catskill,
Kingston, Newburgh, and West Nyack," Dixon said. "The
federal and state governments must act now to protect our communities,
our river, our environment."

Riverkeeper is a
member-supported watchdog organization dedicated to defending the Hudson
River and its tributaries and protecting the drinking water supply of 9
million New York City and Hudson Valley residents.